


Shark Bait

by misura



Category: Katekyou Hitman Reborn!
Genre: Canon - Manga, Getting Together, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-14
Updated: 2018-08-14
Packaged: 2019-06-27 10:20:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,674
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15683463
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/misura/pseuds/misura
Summary: Dino gets into some trouble. Squalo and Hibaridon'thelp.





	Shark Bait

A brief moment of pain, a slightly longer moment of the ice-cold realization that he wasn't going to make it ( _but at least I protected my men, so maybe Reborn isn't going to be_ too _angry with me,_ he'd thought - a joke, obviously: Reborn was going to _kill_ him for dying like this, in some stupid assassination attempt by some second-rate squad he'd never even heard of) and then -

Well. There'd been blood in the water. Supposedly, that attracted a certain kind of predator.

"You stupid fucking idiot, don't you dare die on me," said the shark, with its pearly-white teeth and its silver-white hair, and Dino'd thought, _if you put me down on the comfortable ground, you wouldn't need to worry about that_ , only talking took such an effort right now, he really didn't feel like bothering with it, and besides, honestly, he didn't even _like_ Squalo, so why'd he need to do the guy any favors by pointing out the obvious?

Sure, he'd saved Squalo's life that one time, but that had been a favor for Yamamoto Takeshi, to keep the kid from feeling like a murderer just a little longer. It hadn't had anything to do with Squalo.

"Give him to me," someone said - or no, not someone. Hibari. _Kyoya._ Who wasn't supposed to be here. Who was going to kill him as surely as Reborn would, except that Hibari'd try and make him suffer a bit, first.

The shark scoffed. "He doesn't need you. He needs a medical team."

"One is - "

Lights out.

 

'En route' had been the part he'd missed, presumably, given that when the lights came on again, he was lying in a hospital bed.

_I'm alive._ That was a cheerful thought. It meant a long list of people would be far less likely to kill him, though he might be in for getting yelled at a bit. _How many of my men died?_

"There's a list on the table next to your bed," someone said. _Reborn._ Not, if he was honest with himself, the person he'd most hoped or expected to see.

Of course, Hibari had never been much for sentiment. Squalo'd have likely taken off as soon as the killing was done; the Varia weren't bodyguards, after all. _A list._

"How many?" he asked. A list would have names. Names would mean faces, memories.

"Five dead," said Reborn. "Seventeen injured, of which three in critical condition." A beat. "Squalo is responsible for four of the non-critically injured. He claims they got in his way."

A question there. _Do I want Squalo dead?_ "He did save my life."

"According to Squalo, he was merely paying a debt. You're even now." _You can take him out of the game,_ was what Reborn meant. _Say the word, and the Vongola will send their best._

Dino thought about it. Reborn waited, as patiently as he'd never been when Dino'd been his pupil.

_I must have come very close to dying, if he's not even going to tell me how much I've disappointed him._

 

Hibari might have come and visited him while he'd been out. Dino liked to believe so, anyway. He could imagine the scene perfectly: him, asleep, and Hibari, sitting in a chair by his bed, watching him.

_Watching_ over _me, perhaps,_ although even that would be pushing it. Hibari wasn't _his_ Guardian, after all, no matter how close the Vongola and Chiavarone families were.

Squalo's visit was the one he was awake for. Squalo probably wouldn't have felt any compunctions about waking him up if he'd been asleep, so it was just as well.

"For a guy they call 'Bronco Dino', you sure spend a lot of time lying about being useless," was, apparently, Squalo's version of, "Hello, how are you doing?".

"Thank you for saving my life," Dino said. Debt or not, it needed to be said, and he'd as soon get it over with.

Squalo scowled. "You're lucky I was feeling bored."

_That's how it's going to be then._ Interesting that Squalo hadn't brought up them being even now, though. It might imply Squalo didn't think it was important, or that he assumed Reborn had already passed on that bit of information, but it might also imply Squalo had lied to Reborn.

"You injured some of my men. I don't approve of that," Dino said. "Fair warning."

Squalo scowled some more. "Next time, I'll just watch you die, will I?"

_Do you already know there's going to be a next time? Maybe even when, and how?_ Not questions he wanted to be asking from a hospital bed - at least, not from someone like Squalo.

"Even so, the Chiavarone family is in your debt." A tenuous connection, and not one Dino wanted to rely on in any way, but it was something. A start. Alliances had been built on less.

_How about it, Squalo? Want to broaden your options a bit?_

Squalo snorted. "You'd better be up and about next time I come to visit. I don't have time to waste on weaklings."

_I'll take that as a 'yes'. Good._ He felt himself smile as he drifted off again, Squalo safely gone.

 

With Hibari, Dino didn't even try to broach the subject of the assassination attempt. Two days after Squalo's visit, the Vongola medical team declared him well enough to go home, so home he went.

'Home' being relative in this case: if there was a new mafia hit squad operating in Japan, Dino preferred to be close enough to keep an eye on things. _For all the good that's done me so far._

One morning, he woke up to find Hibari curled up on the bed next to him, like an overgrown cat.

_'If you disturb my sleep, I'll bite you to death.'_ His men had standing orders to permit Hibari entrance at all times, of course. It prevented Hibari from feeling obliged to try to sneak in.

It also prevented Dino's men from getting hurt by a young man who preferred using weapons over using words. Dino supposed Hibari had that in common with Squalo, even if Squalo's temper seemed to run a bit hotter, and sometimes involved yelling at people before dismembering them.

The notion of those two running into one another was, frankly, terrifying.

Hibari yawned and stretched. Dino considered pretending he was still asleep, but no, too late: Hibari had already seen him, and Dino preferred honesty, anyway. Deceit had its place in the mafia, as did outright lies, even among friends and allies, yet ... _it's not my style. And Hibari's neither friend nor ally. He's more than that. He deserves the truth._

_Part of the truth, anyway._ "Good morning. Sleep well?"

Hibari shrugged. "Tsuna was worried. You look all right to me."

_You're not here because Tsuna sent you._ If only because Tsuna would no more dare to give Hibari orders than Dino dared offer affection beyond what Hibari seemed willing to accept. _This is what it means to be a mafia boss: you spend your days in fear of offending overly touchy young men._

"The Vongola employ an excellent medical staff." No mention of a debt here, not with Hibari. This was personal. _Not as personal as I'd like, perhaps, but that's my own problem._

Hibari yawned again. "I got some of the assassins. Not as many as I'd have liked."

Hard to imagine anyone getting away from a determined Hibari. "They escaped?"

Hibari grimaced. "That long-haired freak got them before I did. He tricked me."

_'Give him to me.'_ Right. _Some trick._ "I'm touched. I didn't know you cared so much about me."

"I don't," Hibari said. "They simply annoyed me."

_'You're lucky I was feeling bored.'_ They really were alike - uncomfortably so.

Luckily, he hadn't yet looked at Squalo and thought about what it would be like to kiss him until he ran out of breath.

"Will you stay for breakfast? I can ask them to make you some coffee."

Hibari contemplated this offer as seriously as if Dino'd asked him - well. Good thing he didn't plan on asking Hibari _that_ any time soon. (Not never, Dino didn't think. He simply wanted to be sure, first, both of his own wishes and of Hibari's.)

"All right."

 

Information was in short supply. Reports of Squalo running around killing people were not. _It's like the man is on a one-man killing spree._ The Varia, given carte blanche in dealing with a troublesome family, had done their fair share of whole-sale killings, but they did not appear to be in play here. It was just Squalo. _Not that he's doing too poorly by himself._

"I think it's time for you to go back to Italy," Reborn said, sipping expensive Italian coffee. "The situation here is contained. Your presence only adds tension."

Dino inclined his head. _I'm not done yet._ He'd come to Japan, almost died, and that was that? _I want to spend more time with Hibari. I want to know what Squalo is up to._

Reborn had spoken. There was nothing to be said. "If you say so."

Leon looked like he was laughing at Dino. Probably just his imagination.

 

Italy was ... nice, after Japan. Familiar. Unexciting. Boring, almost.

_'You're lucky I was feeling bored.'_ Dino didn't feel especially lucky. He felt frustrated, like he'd been given all the pieces of a puzzle and still wasn't able to figure out how they all fit together.

He paid personal visits to the families of the men who'd died, and then to the families of the nine still in the hospital. He didn't think of either Hibari or Squalo during those visits. It would have been disrespectful. These men and women had been willing to give their lives for him; the least he could do to honor them was _pay attention_.

He sorted out a few problems, nothing that really required his personal attention, but it made him feel better to do something. Both Hibari and Squalo were in Japan; there was nothing he could do about either of them from here, except brood, and he'd done too much of that already.

Nobody tried to kill him. Nobody slipped into his bedroom to fall asleep within touching distance.

Nobody dropped by only to insult him and suggest he was a weakling.

The rest of the Varia appeared to be going about their business as usual. Dino saw no need to dig deeper; likely as not, they knew as much about Squalo's motivations as he did - and if not, he preferred not to be the one to alert them to Squalo having gone free-lancing, or whatever it was he was doing.

The last thing Tsuna needed right now was more Varia showing up in Japan.

 

The last thing Dino needed, right now or any other moment, was one particular Varia showing up in Italy. Specifically, at the Chiavarone headquarters, with dozens of family members ready and willing to keep Dino safe from any hostile visitors, or else die trying.

Given that this was Squalo, the latter was the more likely option. Or it would have been, without Dino there, mostly recovered and in a seriously bad mood.

"You have ten seconds to explain what you're doing here," Dino said.

"Tsk," said Squalo, which did not improve Dino's mood in any way, shape or form.

"Five." Dino's advantage would be that he'd seen Squalo fight on several occasions. Against Yamamoto Takeshi, Squalo'd actually gone all out. It gave Dino a slight edge, if it were to come to a fight.

Squalo'd have heard stories, but hearing about something wasn't the same as actually having seen it. He'd underestimate Dino, think the stories were exaggerated.

"One." Dino's mouth felt dry. He wasn't afraid of Squalo. Given a choice, he would have fought Squalo somewhere else, though, somewhere there wouldn't be this much risk of collateral damage.

Squalo bared his teeth. "A fight? Sounds like fun." The implication being he hadn't come for one.

The conclusion being that Squalo was a psychopath pushing Dino's buttons for the hell of it, but that wasn't new, exactly. It only hadn't been this personal, before.

"I'm leaving. If you harm any of my men, I will see you dead. I promise you that won't be fun."

Squalo looked supremely unconcerned. "Not that I care, but I came here to make a delivery."

From top-flight assassin to delivery-man was a big step down. "What kind of delivery?"

"Don't want to spoil the surprise," Squalo said. "Besides, you promised me a fight. Time to show me you're not all talk, Chiavarone."

A psychopath with an agenda, it appeared. "I'll give you a time and place, and we can settle this. Just the two of us. I give you my word."

"Done," said Squalo.

 

His legs didn't start shaking until he'd gotten to the set of rooms that were his. Nothing much to them: an office with a desk and a bedroom. Over time, they'd begun to feel like home, though, the one place that was his alone, not his and his family's.

"What did Squalo tell you?" It couldn't be Hibari. Hibari was in Japan. Dino had put two men on him, knowing full well how Hibari would react if he found out about them, and also knowing how little use they would if Hibari decided he wanted them to stop watching him.

"Nothing," Dino said, sinking down on the bed. His head hurt.

Three days from now, he was going to fight Superbia Squalo. Hibari must not be around when he did. No matter how aloof and uncaring Hibari chose to appear, he would never stand by during a fight that might get Dino killed.

Dino didn't want him there, anyway. Not when losing meant dying, and winning meant killing. If that made him a hypocrite, then so be it. "What are you doing here?"

Hibari's lips curved. "Nothing."

Dino almost kissed him then. Anything to break that facade, to force Hibari to acknowledge for one time in his life that he didn't know everything, that there were things in this world he couldn't beat or intimidate into submission. _I'm alive._ He might not be alive next week. _I love you._

He could only imagine how well that particular statement would go over with Hibari.

"You left Japan pretty suddenly," Hibari said.

"I'm sorry. I should have said goodbye in person." Was even that too much already? _No. It's too little. If Squalo kills me, I'm not going to come back to life to do all the things I regret not having done. If Squalo kills me, I'll be dead._ "Were you worried about me?"

Hibari sneered. "No." A beat. "I just don't like it when I don't know where people are."

"And now that you know?" _Stay with me._ With Hibari to come back to, he'd be sure to beat Squalo. Who would even mourn Squalo, if Dino killed him? _Let's not get ahead of ourselves here. And let's definitely not feel sorry for one of the Varia._

"I suppose I could stick around a while," Hibari said. "In case someone tries to kill you again."

_Good news: someone will. Bad news: you can't be there when they do._ "Careful. I might begin to think you care about me after all."

Hibari wrinled his nose. "I'm not like Squalo."

The room spun. "You're the delivery he made. He's who brought you here." It made sense: none of the men here had any orders regarding Hibari's access, because Dino had never expected Hibari to show up here. Hibari was good at sneaking around, sure, but not _that_ good. Not Varia quality good.

_Squalo slipped past my security to bring him here, and then he walked up to the gates to announce himself._

Hibari's expression darkened, probably at the suggestion that he resembled a parcel. "Yes."

"Why?"

Hibari shrugged. "He offered. I accepted. Of course, if I'd known he was going to spend the whole trip talking about you, I might have changed my mind. He sounded like a highschool girl with a crush."

To be fair, Hibari was hardly likely to have listened to many highschool girls with crushes. _Too busy terrifying people._ "If I'd known you wanted to come, I could have sent some of my men."

"Yes," Hibari said, closing that particular subject. "Are you going to kill him?"

"For sounding like a highschool girl with a crush? That seems a bit of an overreaction."

"Good," Hibari said. "You could use someone to watch your back."

"When you're not there, that is?" _By all means, let's pretend there's not a small army of men out there for that very purpose._ True, they wouldn't have saved him from Squalo, had Squalo come here for a hit.

"I'm the Vongola Cloud Guardian," Hibari said. "I can share. If I choose to do so."

_I'm willing to be shared._ By Hibari and Squalo, though? _People are going to suspect I've gone off the deep end._ Useful for tricky negotiations, maybe, to be able to show up with the pair of them in tow. _People would think twice about trying to start any trouble with the Chiavarone family._

"I don't want you as my bodyguard, Kyoya." Thin ice. One wrong step, and he might still mess this up, astonishing willingness to share on Hibari's part or not.

"What you want doesn't really matter to me," Hibari said, but he frowned a little.

"I don't think that's true," said Dino. "I know it matters a great deal to me what _you_ want."

Hibari leaned forwards a bit, still frowning, and then they were kissing, more or less, and Dino realized that kissing Hibari was even scarier than knowing he was going to fight Squalo.

Admittedly, once he got the hang of it, it was a lot more fun.

 

True to his word, Dino had come alone.

Squalo had not. Strictly speaking, he hadn't given his word that he would, but even so.

"I don't want him here," Dino said. He'd kissed Hibari. He hoped to do it some more after this - whatever 'this' would turn out to be. He did not want Hibari to attend his fight with Squalo.

"He and I have unfinished business," said Squalo. "Like you and me. So I figured, why not make this interesting? You and him against me. If you're as good as they say you are, you might actually stand a chance."

This did not sound like a highschool girl with a crush. "I'm better. I can beat you by myself."

"Words are cheap," Squalo said.

"He annoys me. If you don't want to kill him, I will," said Hibari.

_These are the two people who saved my life, less than half a year ago._ "I'm not in the habit of fighting people for fun. If there's something you want from me, Squalo, ask."

"I want for you to stop talking and start showing me what you're made of," Squalo said.

_Flesh and blood, same as everyone else._ "Not to the death, then." Would Squalo respect such a restriction, once the fight started? Would Hibari? "You want me to show you why Reborn judged me worthy of leading the Chiavarone family? I will be happy to show you."

"I'm waiting," Squalo said.

Hibari scoffed. "I was done waiting five minutes ago."

 

_Well. That could have gone worse._ Better, too, but nobody had died, which Dino considered as close to a win as it had been possible to achieve.

"You were right about being better than your reputation," Squalo said. He sounded very cheerful for a man who more closely resembled a mummy than a human being.

"I warned you." Hibari was fine. Squalo'd knocked him out of the fight early.

Dino preferred not to think about what might have happened if Squalo had actively tried to kill both of them. _Or what might have happened if Kyoya had decided to stop faking unconsciousness._ A suspicion rather than a certainty, but it fit with everything else he knew about Hibari.

"So what happens now?" Squalo asked.

_Good question._ "I'd say that's up to you. You wanted to test me, and that's fine with me. Once. You want to declare yourself my enemy, it's not going to be just you and me next time. It's going to be snipers and gunmen and all of the Chiavarone family as well as our allies." _It's going to be a bloodbath._

Squalo grinned, a shark showing teeth. "What about if I declare myself your new very best friend?"

_I'll try very hard to find a way to make things work. I may end up failing, but it won't be for lack of effort._ "We'd have to talk about that."

"I hate talking about things."

Dino shrugged. "Those are my terms. Take them or leave them."

"The other guys won't like it. Doesn't matter what you do or say, there's going to be a lot of pissed off people gunning for you, Chiavarone. Should be fun."

_What did I ever do to deserve this?_ "Your idea of fun and mine are very different."

"Should've let me drown then," Squalo said. "Like it or not, you're stuck with me now. Me and that kid who likes biting people to death. He's all right. Might make something of himself one day."

_God help us all._ "For someone who hates talking, you've got a lot of things to say."

"He's in love with you, you know. Like a puppy. All the way from here to Japan, he was yapping about how wonderful you were. I almost threw him out of the plane."

_'He sounded like a highschool girl with a crush.'_ Hibari's words, about Squalo during that same trip. _The truth, as they say, is probably somewhere in the middle._

_As will I soon be, if only to prevent these two from teaming up against me._

"I know," Dino said. "I return his feelings." To push, or not to push? "And yours."

Squalo said nothing.

_Guess he finally remembered why he hates talking so much._


End file.
